SIX youths were jailed for life yesterday after being found guilty of the murder of a teenage father.
The High Court in Glasgow heard they attacked Robert O'Donohue, 19, in a park after he patted a girl's bottom.
He was kicked and punched and suffered multiple head injuries before the gang stripped him and left him to die.
Detained for life in a Young Offenders' Institution by Lord Dawson were Paul Mowat, 20, of Beechwood Drive; Peter Davidson, 20, of Sikeside Place; and Martin McGlinchey, 20, of Cumbrae Crescent, all Coatbridge.
Lord Dawson ordered the three younger accused, Shaun Burns, 17, of Buchlyvie Street, Easterhouse, Glasgow; Muir McLaughlin, 17, of Sheepburn Road, Uddingston, and his cousin 16-year-old Ryan Renicks, of Cumbrae Crescent, Coatbridge, to be detained without limit of time.
All six were found guilty of the murder and Burns was also found guilty of stealing the dead youth's trainers. A seventh youth, who had originally faced the murder charge, Shaun Reilly, 17, of Greenwood Crescent, Coatbridge, was jailed for six months after his plea of guilty to a reduced charge of assaulting the dead man was accepted by the Crown.
The court had heard how the gang had rolled Mr O'Donohue, of Barrowfield Street, Coatbridge, into a burn in the town's Heritage Park after beating him up. He managed to stagger to his feet and they chased him into the undergrowth before beginning a second ``prolonged'' assault.
A doctor said Mr O'Donohue, a window maker, had multiple head injuries. He had been kicked and stamped upon and a sharp stone had been used to stab him on the head.
He died when a main artery leading from his spine to his brain was severed by a stamp on the side of his face.
The court heard that the gang bragged about their parts in the killing, on June 15, and showed no remorse. The court was told that Mr O'Donohue was asked to leave Bunkum's Nightclub after a girl complained that he had cuddled her.
As he walked home he joined a group of youths and two teenage girls. He patted one of the girls, Miss Anne Burns, on the bottom. That was all the excuse for the gang to attack him.
Miss Burns, 19, of Almond Place, Coatbridge, said the gang had ignored her screams for them to stop the attack.
Defending solicitor-advocate Mr Maurice Smyth asked for a verdict of culpable homcide. He said: ``The youths believed the girl had been sexually molested and acted in what they believed was justifiable outrage.
``They did not intend the beating to end in death.''
The dead man's partner, Ms Marjory Rafferty, 18, the mother of his eight-month-old son, also Robert, said later: ``They've left my baby without a father and now they are paying for it.''
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